posted by Kelly at 11:56 PM

One of my most memorable guests at Canyon Ranch was a man named Mark (names have been changed to protect privacy). He showed up in my office feeling that he was facing a 14-day sentence at Canyon Ranch in Tucson. Here he was, in his mid-30s and a rising star in the restaurant industry, but he was a man in trouble, and with no idea as to what to do about it. He talked so fast that I’d thought he’d turn purple as his story spilled out of him. He was about 40 pounds overweight and drank heavily – alcohol was the only thing that helped him unwind after his hectic, 14-hour days, he said. He’d been dragged to Canyon Ranch by his wife, who’d visited us three months earlier.

“I am very stressed out and if I don’t get a handle on this soon, I’ll probably be dead before I turn 50,” he said. He repeated a key phrase to me several times: “I feel so stressed.”

Mark’s profession was a hectic and demanding one, for sure, but the real problem was his response to the stress in his life. He needed to learn to recognize the onset of stress and his body’s natural reactions, and then work on managing those reactions in a healthy way. I recommended that he work with the specialists in Life Management, and, specifically, that he experience biofeedback. It’s one of the amazing, high-tech tools Canyon Ranch offers, and I’ve seen it do great things for guests.

Biofeedback works on the principle that, by using the power of our minds, we all have the innate ability to control physiological responses in our bodies. Once we understand our automatic physiological responses, we can train ourselves to recognize them and use our minds to influence them in a positive way. Athletes use biofeedback to improve their performance, and people have successfully used it to get control of stress-related health conditions like panic-attacks, migraine headaches and irritable bowl disease.

Canyon Ranch offers two primary biofeedback services: Biofeedback is a two-session service that, with the help of instruments that measure your physiological responses, teaches you to recognize what stress feels like and trains you in techniques for handling it. Heart-Mind Magic focuses on your heart rate and the influence that breath can have on regulating it. Both were very useful to Mark.

He spent three sessions learning about his body, his mind and his stress response. He also learned to meditate. By the time he left, he was able to use meditation, guided imagery and breathing techniques – instead of all those cocktails – to handle some of the stress in his life. It was a great beginning. He plans to return to Canyon Ranch and make more profound changes in his behaviors around eating, exercise and alcohol consumption.

Learning about biofeedback started as an exploration and ended up being transformational for Mark. Have you had a similar experience? I’d love to hear about it!

posted by Kelly at 11:17 PM

The pain in my hip felt like someone was sticking me with small needles. With every twinge of pain, I was reminded of the miles that I put in training for a half-marathon, without sticking to a proper stretching and cool-down program (another conversation for another post). A Program Advisor at Canyon Ranch recommended I try acupuncture for the pain. While I respect the discipline, just the thought of a needle made all the color rush from my face, so my advisor recommended Acutonics instead. And what in the world is Acutonics? Well, I can tell you that it involves no needles and it works. I could actually feel my hip moving and the points of pain diminishing. I have done some research and here is what I learned about the world of Acutonics.

Acutonics is a non-invasive healing system that uses sound and vibration to balance and bring harmony to the human energy field. Are you with me on this one? Keep in mind that musical tones and sounds have been a part of the human experience forever, spanning all cultures. It has been integral to healing rituals for centuries. In Acutonics, the idea is that by applying sound vibrations to our bodies we will bring balance to our energy. By balancing our energy, we can achieve optimal health.

My Acutonics session began with the practitioner’s assessment of what was going on with my body and in my life. After explaining the pain in my hip and detailing the relationship I had built with my running shoes, she got out the special forks. Mind you, these are not the forks we use to twirl pasta. These are tuning forks that have been set to mirror the sounds of the Earth. She struck the forks on something she called an activator, then placed them near my lower back. I could feel the vibration moving down my leg. It was a tingling sensation at first but then I could feel my hip dropping. It was a crazy feeling – my hip was moving and I was not commanding it to do anything! I was definitely not in charge of this experience. By the end of the session, my pain lessened and I felt like I had some improved movement.

I can tell you that additional sessions are needed to get the best long-term results. And it’s still my job to stretch and cool down after a run. Whether you do Acutonics once or make it part of your routine, though, it’s a rejuvenating experience and a great reminder of the healing power we all possess when mind and body work together.